Info Bytes 01.19.23

Please note that this newsletter is a bit longer due to the decreased frequency.

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Contempt for Service

• Many volunteers are pleased to know they're making a difference despite the fact that their efforts are seldom, if ever acknowledged.  In other words, the reward of volunteering is self-evident to most volunteers.

• Have you ever been exhausted by peer volunteers who exhibit contempt for service and servant leadership necessary to successfully move your community forward?

• Contempt for service is apparently a phenomenon, BUT it should be easily solved by supporting — and not spiteing — the volunteers who are willing to serve.

  • Check out the discussion on r/HOA Reddit .  You might also like to read:

  • Start Serving Your Community: STOP Playing Politics

  • Know Your Experts: They Might Be Your Neighbors

  • There's Only ONE Sandbox: Everyone Gets a Shovel!

Housing

Expensive Housing = Less Profit

• Property investors are finding it more challenging to make a profit.

  • For Landlords, Rising Housing Costs Make It Harder to Earn Passive Income — Veronica Dagher | WSJ | 12/19/22

A Supertall Stampede

• The city of Austin is building up, and its once-modest skyline is getting weird… The Supertalls Are Coming to Austin — Kriston Capps | Bloomberg

Skyscraper with a Twist

• Above 30 meters, the building floorplate grows from a triangle into a rectangle…

  • Vancouver Skyscraper Twists Around Zoning Restrictions — Amelia Pollard | Bloomberg

Housing Affordability

• The Obvious Answer to Homelessness — Jerusalem Demsas | The Atlantic | 12/12/22

Algorithm for Empty Office Space

• Savvy readers who have kept up with our coverage about office to residential conversions will find this difficult to believe (as do we).

  • Meet the guy whose algorithm could solve the crisis of America's empty office space — Zoe Rosenberg | Business Insider | 01/08/23

Banning Gas Appliances

• Burning things tends to create byproducts that aren't great for living creatures.  The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is now taking aim at banning gas cooktops.

• Certain states (California) and municipalities (such as Seattle) have already banned gas for certain new construction, but it's a new frontier at the Federal level.  U.S. Considers Banning or Restricting Gas Stoves — Molly Taft | Gizmodo | 01/09/23

NOT Banning Gas Appliances

• CPSC's task was short-lived, but while it lost this battle, the war on all things fossil fuels will most certainly continue.

• Did you know that while electric appliances might make for cleaner indoor air, the electricity used to power them primarily comes from fossil fuels?

  How the humble gas stove became the latest flash point in the culture wars — Maxine Joselow | WaPo | 01/11/23

Gambling with your Capital?

• Big bets by the Fed for a 'soft landing' could come crashing down.  Yahoo Finance Video — Bloomberg Evening Briefing | 01/10/23

Crisis Averted … or NOT?

• Major market players can't agree about whether the Fed will achieve a 'soft landing'.  — Bloomberg Evening Briefing | 01/10/23

Bond Market vs. Fed Speak

• "There is no way the Fed is going to 5%. The Fed is not in control. The Bond Market is in control."

  • 5 Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day — Katie Greifeld | 01/13/23

• Fed policy makers are starting to show differing opinions on the path for US interest rates.

  • Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan and Philadelphia Fed chief Patrick Harker laid out the case for easing the Fed's hiking campaign in comments on Wednesday, which followed a weak retail sales report.

  • Meanwhile, St. Louis Fed chief James Bullard and Loretta Mester of the Cleveland Fed — also speaking on Wednesday — stressed the need to keep policy restrictive for longer.  5 Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day | 01/19/23

Double Down

• Is the 60/40 portfolio dead?  Long live 60/40!

  • Your Investing Strategy Just Failed. It's Time to Double Down — Jason Zweig | WSJ | 01/13/23

Alphabet Soup

• CFA, CFP, PFS, oh my!

  • Financial Advisers Have an Alphabet Soup of Credentials. What Do They Mean? — Suzanne McGee | WSJ | 01/08/23

Inflation Humor

• Artist Christopher Weyant for the Boston Globe

Moving and Shaking

• Our Publications page includes a link to OpenStates search for CIC-related legislation in WA State. You can easily create your own account, save searches for any state, track the status of legislation and receive email alerts for free.

  • The Washington State legislature currently has 21 CIC-related bills in various stages of progress.  Three of these are particularly noteworthy:

    • Prohibiting restrictions of unrelated occupants in a single unit/home

    • Prohibiting restrictions of licensed child care in residential units/homes

    • Aligning recordkeeping and auditing provisions from legacy statutes (64.32, 64.38, 64.34) with WUCIOA

Legal Advice

• Our Confidentiality page hosts information about what's considered confidential information and what's not (hint: emails between Board members are generally not confidential).  The US Supreme Court will rule on In re Grand Jury sometime this session.

  • Scope of attorney-client privilege when lawyers give both legal and nonlegal advice – Stephen Gillers | SCOTUSblog | 01/05/23

Nuisances

• Smoke (from cigarettes, marajuana and other sources) can definitely be a nuisance.  Enforcing remedies based on nuisance provisions in your declaration / CC&Rs ( see Ideas for your Declaration: Language to Live By) is typically achievable (but not always easy).  Enforcing changes without a binding covenant with nuisance language is more challenging…

  • D.C. lawsuit to test legal claim that marijuana smell is a nuisance for neighbors
  • Second-Hand Smoke Infiltration
  • Marijuana in Condominiums: Nuisance and Legal Consequences

Is the Law Really On your Side?

• In Channon v. Westward Management, the Illinois Supreme Court cited Horist v. Sudler & Co. (7th Circuit Court of Appeals) and applied the four-part Metzger test to determine that unit sellers were not primarily intended to benefit from statutes requiring resale documentation for purchasers.  This finding concludes that limitations on fees charged to supply documentation can be interpreted to benefit purchasers just as readily as to benefit sellers.

• This is an intriguing case because many management companies in Washington State have made a habit of charging sellers well in excess of the $275 resale certificate fee cap established in July 2011 when the legislature last raised the limit from $150.

Bark is Worse than the Bite

• Failing to follow proper procedure and due process is a recipe for headaches.  In Copper Square v. Bonnell, an association made a mess of enforcement based on less than all the facts.  The outcome?  Judicial unwillingness to enforce removal of a pet pooch.

Unclean Hands

• Ullrich v. Meijer teaches us this: don't file lawsuits against your neighbors when you are guilty of the same offense.

  The doctrine of unclean hands allows a trial court to deny injunctive relief when the evidence show the plaintiff engaged in the same or similar conduct as that of the defendant.

Public Policy

• In Lake Naomi Club v. Rosado, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania found that public policy invalidates residency restrictions for registered sex offenders.

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